Ireland’s ongoing artistic reckoning with the Catholic Church’s gross mistreatment of unmarried mothers and their children — as addressed in such films as “The Magdalene Sisters,” “Philomena” and “Small Things Like These” — continues in “The Lost Children of Tuam.” A restrained but deeply affecting drama that keeps the horrors of the past largely unseen, instead tracing a contemporary woman’s growing awareness of vast tragedy buried in her hometown, Frank Berry‘s film is ripped from recent headlines: Viewers may recall the international media coverage of local historian Catherine Corless’ discovery that hundreds of children had been buried in an unmarked grave on the former site of a Catholic mother and baby home in Tuam, Galway.
But while “She Said” writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s typically studious screenplay is primarily based on a 2017 article by New York Times journalist Dan Barry, it’s not a drama of dramatic journalistic scoops and revelations — instead opting for a patiently procedural study of the thankless grassroots legwork that goes first into uncovering hard truths in largely silent communities, before the matter of pursuing institutional acknowledgement and accountability.
